University recycles 1.5 million pounds of materials

Ed Jones, a recycling associate at the University of Richmond, works on a daily timetable to finish his work, making sure contents of all recycling stations on campus have been collected. He drives a white Ford truck that connects to a black metal-grated trailer with wheels that screech slightly with every brake. Jones honks at every familiar passerby with two honks of the horn and a wave.

Maryland Hall marks his first stop. A circular route leads him through campus, to the Robins Center, behind Jepson Hall, and eventually to the Modlin Center for the Arts. At every station Jones guides the truck in reverse, close to the recycle bins. It's a dirty job, but there's money to be made here, he said.

Jones assesses each bin before he adds it to the truck's pile of recycled materials. A bin behind the law school has drink bottles mixed in with paper inside of a bin labeled for drink containers only. It will be trashed because there isn't time to sort out everything.

Al Lane, manager of environmental and custodial services, explained how recycled items sometimes end up in trash headed for the landfill, in a discussion about the campus' recycling program.

"There's almost 100 folks in the department so every once in a while somebody forgets, slips, or wants to take a shortcut," Lane said. "It's going to happen."

He said custodial staff used a "two-bag system" that gave the impression that recycled items were being discarded with trash. "That's probably what people see most of the time," he said.

"It's not an excuse, it's a fact that that's the process we use," Lane said. "We make decisions to keep our contamination down."

Recycle bins are considered contaminated when trash is found in inside and its contents are never recycled, but thrown in with trash, Lane said. Custodians use clear trashcan liners to see what's in both waste and recycle bins, he said. If recycle bins are lightly contaminated, custodians can choose to pull out the trash.

"They make their own judgment there," he said.

Companies referred to as brokers that sell recyclables, may fine the university or refuse to process its recyclables if a load is too contaminated. The university uses Sonoco Products, Stratton Metals and two other companies as brokers to sell its recycled items.

Last year the university produced about 2,672,668 pounds of landfill material, as stated in a report on recycle and waste from the University Facilities department.

"It's always been an incredible number to me, that we generate that much waste," Lane said.

Common 8-yard dumpsters, enough to hold a week's supply of water for one person, were the source of most trash. They accumulated 1,388,424 pounds last year. Compactors used at the Heilman Dining Center and Tyler Haynes Commons accumulate heavier totals of trash because its density and mass is increased.

University Facilities pays approximately $30 for every ton of trash sent to the landfill. By selling recyclables and diverting them from landfills, the university is able to save from money and generate revenue.

On average, about $10,000 to $15,000 is made from recycling every year. However, Lane said, "there's not a lot of revenue, there's a lot more expense associated with our program."

The university recycled 1.5 million pounds of materials last year.

Yard waste, containing grass and flower cuttings and food waste, was the highest category of materials recycled, at 672,000 pounds. Central Virginia Waste Management Authority in Richmond, VA, processed that waste, by shredding it and then turning it into mulch. It is available at a Hanover County solid waste service convenience center. But cardboard, which was the second most recycled material, was the university's biggest generator of money.

Numbers from the recycle and waste report fluctuate yearly, Lane said. Summer projects can influence those changes, like carpet renovations made to certain buildings.

University Facilities attempts to keep its staff informed by making recently published literature on recycling available. One of them is a magazine titled Waste & Recycling News, which features stories like the launch of a phone recycling project and new diesel rules to produce clean engines in motor vehicles in its March 29, 2010 issue.

In the last two years, the university participated in Recyclemania, a 10-week competition that reports schools' recycling and trash data and ranks them according to different categories. Universities across the country and other nations participated in the competition that ended March 27.

Contact reporter Keon Monroe at keon.monroe@richmond.edu